Last week, it was like a bomb went off smack in the middle of MAGA world: Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel agreed there was no Epstein client list.
Well, MAGA did not buy it, and now they are calling for Bondi’s head, a fire that Trump is now trying to put out.
The Epstein file became a thing because the Trump campaign made it a thing during the campaign.
In June 2024, Donald Trump was asked by a Fox News reporter if he would declassify all Epstein files, and he responded, "Yeah, yeah, I would."
The Trump War Room X account then posted, "President Trump says he will DECLASSIFY the 9/11 Files, JFK Files, and Epstein Files."
In September 2024, while doing a podcast with Lex Fridman, he was asked about the files being released, and Trump responded, "Yeah, I'd certainly take a look at it. Now, Kennedy's interesting because it's so many years ago. They do that for danger too, because it endangers certain people, et cetera, et cetera, so Kennedy is very different from the Epstein thing but I'd be inclined to do the Epstein. I'd have no problem with it."
This week, Trump changed his tune, literally blaming Obama and former FBI Director James Comey of writing the files themselves.
He was doing this to discredit the files and justify only releasing partial files.
Trump, when asked again about the files and Pam Bondi, he responded, “She’s handled it very well, and it’s going to be up to her.
“Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release.”
This is a big deal to a lot of MAGA people, so I was not surprised they bought into the idea of Trump releasing the files, and I am not shocked at all that they want Bondi’s head, even though I think this call was made well above her pay grade.
Now Trump is just downplaying the files, stating, “He’s [been] dead for a long time, he was never a big factor in terms of life. I don’t understand what the interest or what the fascination is — I really don’t.
“The credible information has been given.” He added, “I don’t understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody. It’s pretty boring stuff. It’s sordid, but it’s boring, and I don’t understand why it keeps going. I think really only pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going.”
Well, he’s wrong. This is mostly MAGA that wants to keep it going, and if he really felt that way, why did he not dismiss the files on the campaign trail? This is yet another one of those overpromises that Trump made, as well as contributing to the conspiracy, and he is paying a price for it. MAGA is fuming over this, and I am just not sure how Trump put this fire out without losing his most loyal supporters.